Damon Stone

Damon has been dancing his entire life, starting with vernacular
Jazz/Blues first taught to him at the tender age of six by his
grandmother. After nearly a decade of learning at the heels of his
elders, he went on and eventually studied numerous dance forms until
coming full circle in 1995 to focus primarily on the history and
styles of Swing and Blues as his family danced them with a special
focus on the Southern styles from the Mississippi Delta region.

He has studied the development of vernacular Jazz/Blues dance
across the United States learning from a number of the original
dancers. He is largely regarded as one of the foremost authorities on
Blues idiom dance and has been interviewed as a dance historian in
documentary and for radio. Damon has been a featured instructor at
camps, festivals, and workshops across five continents.

Kenneth Shipp

Kenneth Shipp is a dance instructor from Nashville, TN who spent years
dancing hip hop and break before jumping into blues idioms over the
past 3 years. He loves to incorporate his nerdy personality into all
his classes and strives for authenticity and honesty in his
dancing.

Kenneth’s life experiences inform his dancing and wants his
students to walk away with a better historical and contextual
understanding to exhibit it in their dances. Taking that same approach
in competitions, he recently won the bluesSHOUT 2017 Open Strictly
with Dawa Jung, Mile High Blues 2017 Open Solo and All-Star
Follow’N’Lead with Cierra Ruffin to name a few.

Laney Barhaugh

Laney is a blues dance instructor, organizer, and DJ. She has been
dancing Lindy Hop and blues for over 10 years, with some dabbling in
tango and hip hop. She also loves lifting heavy things – it has given
her confidence, better quality of movement, and has completely changed
her dancing. She loves shaking her booty to any genre of music that
encourages it. As a teacher, her goals are to integrate a little
history and a little musicality into every lesson.